Stand Up, Stay Up

National falls prevention programme

Having a fall, especially if you're an older person, can have a devastating effect on your quality of life.

As well as the physical consequences, falls can destroy confidence, leading to loneliness, isolation and a loss of independence.

A startling number of people have falls. In 2014/15, more than 282,000 people over the age of 65 were admitted to hospital in England because of a fall. More than 70,000 hip fractures happen each year, and falls are the leading cause of accidental death in older people.

But falls are not an inevitable part of ageing.

The key to good falls prevention is making sure that when people stand up, they stay up - reducing the rising number of people needing hospital treatment as the result of a fall.

Achieving this rests on the commitment of a wide range of services, and supporting these services is what Stand Up, Stay Up is all about.

Funded by the Department of Health, the three-year programme is running across England from 2016-2019. It's bringing together all those working to prevent falls among older people as well as older people themselves who have had or are at risk of having a fall in later life.